In this installment of the ‘Agronometrics In Charts’ series, we take a look at Peru’s blueberry sector. Each week, the series looks at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic, visualizing the market factors that are driving change.

Peru’s blueberry sector has wrapped up its 2024-2025 season on a strong note, exporting over 318,000 tons by April. This performance marks a solid rebound from the previous campaign, which was impacted by severe weather conditions that impacted both volume and quality. While the current results have been welcomed by growers and exporters alike, the season also exposed a critical vulnerability: logistics.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.

(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Luis Miguel Vegas, general manager of ProArándanos, the industry group representing Peru’s top producers and exporters, acknowledged both the success and the strain the season brought. “It has been a good season, with good volumes and good prices for most of the year. However, we suffered great logistical stress,” he said.

The final quarter of the year accounted for over 60% of the total exports, which resulted in significant pressure on market pricing, transportation, and storage. Congestion-plagued significant export locations, including Philadelphia in the United States and Callao in Peru, while the Panama Canal's delays, which were exacerbated by concurrent export campaigns such as grapes, added to the complications.

Vegas warned that such bottlenecks are unsustainable as the sector looks to expand. “Such a concentration of the supply is a major challenge, both from a commercial and a logistical point of view,” he noted. Despite these issues, ProArándanos is forecasting a 20% growth in the upcoming campaign - making it essential that stakeholders act now to avoid future gridlock.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.

(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Backing this projection, the USDA’s 2025 Blueberry Annual Report paints an optimistic picture for Peru’s medium-term future. According to the report, production in the marketing year 2025/2026 is expected to recover strongly, assuming weather conditions normalize. Growth is being driven by a combination of factors: expanded cultivation areas, rising foreign investment, and resilient plant genetics that are helping crops maintain productivity even in the face of erratic weather.

The USDA highlights that Peru’s field consolidation and infrastructure upgrades are starting to pay off, enabling economies of scale that could further boost both yield and export potential. This aligns with ongoing efforts by PromPerú, the country’s export promotion agency, which is pushing for market diversification and improved international logistics to reduce dependency on any single route or destination.

Peru's current challenge is not merely the cultivation of additional blueberries; it is also ensuring that they are delivered to the appropriate markets at the appropriate time without overtaxing the system. With a strategic mix of planning, investment, and international collaboration, the country is poised to hold its place as one of the world’s leading blueberry exporters.

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

All pricing for domestic US produce represents the spot market at Shipping Point (i.e. packing house/climate controlled warehouse, etc.). For imported fruit, the pricing data represents the spot market at Port of Entry. You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics, a data visualization tool built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions. If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 21 commodities we currently track.